Thursday, July 17, 2014
Firefox OS Expand Across New Devices, Markets and Categories

Firefox OS is Expanding across a broad range of devices and product categories in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific.

One year after the first devices were launched, Firefox OS is now available on seven smartphones offered by five operators in 15 countries.

Deutsche Telekom will be the first operator to sell the new ALCATEL ONETOUCH Fire E phones, available in Germany this week through congstar. In the coming months, Deutsche Telekom will also launch Firefox OS devices in four new markets – Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia and Montenegro.

Telefonica also announced that Germany has become the ninth country where they offer Firefox OS phones, as O2 started pre-sales of ALCATEL ONETOUCH Fire E phones.

In addition, ZTE will launch the Open C as the first Firefox OS device available in France later this month.

Telefonica will offer Firefox OS phones across all of their Latin American markets by the end of the year, expanding to Central America in the next few months and followed by Argentina and Ecuador. The company is also expanding its Firefox OS portfolio, having recently launched ZTE Open C and Open II devices in the region and soon offering the Alcatel ONETOUCH Fire C phones, all running the latest version of Firefox OS.

América Móvil, which launched Firefox OS phones in Mexico earlier this summer, will also expand its offering in Latin America by the end of the year.

Spice and Intex will soon launch the first Firefox OS devices in the ultra-low-cost category in India.

Telenor confirmed they will offer Firefox OS phones in Asia by the end of the year.

Chunghwa Telecom, the largest operator in Taiwan, recently announced that they have joined the more than 20 operators committed to delivering Firefox OS in their markets.

To accelerate the design, development and testing of the Firefox OS ecosystem, Mozilla has partnered with Thundersoft to manufacture and distribute the Firefox OS Flame reference phone, now on sale. The Flame is representative of the mid-tier phone hardware that Mozilla and its partners will release over the coming year.

Mozilla continues to evolve Firefox OS to include features like NFC and enhanced Bluetooth connections that support sharing of content like contacts, videos and images; LTE support; and Firefox Accounts as a safe and easy way for users to take Firefox everywhere through services that include the Firefox Marketplace, Firefox Sync, device backup, cloud storage, and a service to help locate, message or wipe a phone if it is lost or stolen.

Mozilla is also working with Panasonic to develop SmartTVs running Firefox OS, and Abitcool will launch an HDMI streaming device later this year that allows the user to fling content from compatible mobile or Web apps to an HDTV.